Professor Alison Lane, Director of the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC), recently travelled to Japan to participate in the Jizai Consortium, an exciting multi-institutional event hosted by Tohoku University in Sendai. The Jizai Consortium makes upan international group committed to developing technologies that promote a more inclusive society for people with communication differences.
The Jizai Consortium brought together experts from a diverse range of disciplines including neuroscience, robotics, clinical psychiatry, cell biology, AI, and social policy. In Japanese, ‘Jizai’, means ‘at-will’ or ‘able to be oneself’ —reflecting the group’s mission to empower individuals through technological and societal innovation.
Professor Lane delivered a keynote titled ‘A Sensory View of the Autistic Mind: Implications for Research and Technologies Promoting Person-Environment Fit’, where she emphasised the importance of understanding Autistic experience through a sensory lens. Her talk explored how sensory processing differences emerge early in the lives of Autistic individuals and are deeply tied to their developing sense of self.
The talk highlighted that these differences shape the conditions for trust in both social and physical environments and discussed the need to explore the relationship between clinical and physiological presentations of sensory differences to better support person-environment fit.
Professor Lane described how Autistic people often experience the world in ways that are acute and intense—both positively and negatively—and how repetitive behaviours or sensory preoccupations may serve a functional purpose in organising ‘the sensorium’ – the brain systems responsible for receiving, processing, and interpreting sensory information. These insights are critical for designing environments and technologies that are supportive rather than overwhelming for Autistic individuals.
Professor Lane also shared the work of Dr Patrick Dwyer (also from OTARC), who takes an ecological approach to understanding sensory differences. While much previous research has concentrated on individual sensory sensitivities, Dwyer’s work explores how sensory environments themselves can be redesigned. In a co-designed pilot study led by Dr Dwyer, Autistic university students used a mobile app to report their everyday sensory experiences through experience sampling. When participants reported sensory discomfort, they were also more likely to feel anxious, irritable, and exhausted—pointing to important links between sensory environments and emotional wellbeing.
In addition to her keynote, Professor Lane also spoke about the importance of community engagement in autism research—highlighting consultation, co-design, and co-production as essential strategies for ensuring that research reflects and respects the lived experiences of Autistic individuals and their families.
While in Japan, Professor Lane made time to visit two prominent research groups in Tokyo. One was at Showa University, focused on clinical psychiatric care for Autistic adults, and the other was at the University of Tokyo, with research focused on what signalling from exosomes in human cells can reveal about broader aspects of health and wellbeing.
These meetings have opened up promising new pathways for collaboration between the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre researchers and Japanese scientists working across both clinical and cellular domains. This visit marked the beginning of ongoing discussions between The Centre and Jizai consortium members, as both groups seek new collaborative pathways to support neurodivergent communities through technology and interdisciplinary science.
